1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless transceivers, and more specifically to techniques for switching between transmit and receive modes in a wireless transceiver.
2. Related Art
A wireless transceiver is generally a device that contains both a receiver and a transmitter, and receives and transmits signals wirelessly on a wireless medium. The transmitter of a wireless transceiver may often be non-operational when the receiver is processing (e.g., down-converting and demodulating) a received signal, and the transceiver may be said to be in a receive mode. Similarly, the receiver of the wireless transceiver may be non-operational when the transmitter is processing (e.g., modulating, up-converting and power-amplifying) a signal to be transmitted, and the transmitter may said to be in a transmit mode.
To minimize power consumption, at least some of the components in the receiver may be powered-OFF when the transceiver is in the transmit mode. Similarly, at least some of the components in the transmitter may be powered-OFF when the transceiver is in the receive mode. Switching between transmit and receive modes may, therefore, require powering-ON and powering-OFF respectively of the corresponding receiver and transmitter portions or components. The powering-OFF and powering-ON may be complete or partial, based, for example, on the specific implementation of the wireless transceiver. Thus, powering-OFF may correspond to removal of power for all of the corresponding powered-OFF components/blocks, or only removal of power for some components/blocks (for example, high power-consumption components/blocks) while maintaining other components/blocks in a powered-ON (or low-power/idle) state. Alternatively, power-OFF may also correspond to setting all or some of the components/blocks in a low-power (e.g., idle) states. Similarly, powering-ON may correspond to restoration or application of power to all or only some of the corresponding components/blocks from a no-power, low-power or idle states to full/normal power. Switching between transmit and receive modes may need to be performed fast enough to conform to one or more operational requirements of the transceiver.